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Taste/Transcript
Transcript There is a close-up of Tim's tongue in the middle of the screen. Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby" in its usual font. Tim holds a letter and Moby breaks an egg into a mixture in a bowl. Tim reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, my brother dared me to eat a whole raw onion and I said no because it would have tasted bad. If he had dared me to eat a whole pear I would have done it in a second because pears taste good. So tell me, how does taste work? Signed, Kevin. Well, onions do taste different from pears. Black licorice tastes different from popcorn. And salmon tastes different from most types of gum. Images show these foods. TIM: Want to know why? Look at my tongue. Look at it! Mmleah. Tim sticks his tongue out. TIM: My tongue, and yours, too, is covered with little bumps called papillae. You can see them when you look in the mirror. An image shows Tim's tongue like in the title screen. An image shows the tongue's papillae, which are raised bumps with little holes in the center. TIM: These bumps hold your taste buds. An animation shows flashing taste buds in a cross section of the papillae. TIM: Your taste buds help you taste things. An image shows a large view of taste buds, which look like bulbs attached to the inside of the papillae. TIM: Here's how it works. All over your mouth, you have salivary glands. An animation shows flashing salivary glands below the papillae and taste buds. TIM: When you see or smell food, they produce saliva, also called spit. An animation shows a plate of salmon passing below Tim's face. TIM: This is called salivating. The animation shows saliva rising up to the surface of the papillae. TIM: If it gets out of control, it's called drooling. An animation shows Tim's head in the center, surrounded by images of all kinds of food. Tim is drooling. TIM: When you eat, your teeth chew up food into tiny bits. Certain proteins in your saliva go to work on these bits, breaking them down into their component chemicals. An animation shows saliva breaking down food bits. TIM: The saliva seeps back down to your taste buds, carrying with it the dissolved chemicals from the food. An animation shows the saliva seeping down to the taste buds in the papillae. TIM: When the saliva enters the taste buds, the taste buds sense these chemicals. They send a signal to your brain that lets you know what the food you just ate tastes like. An animation shows the saliva entering the taste buds in the papillae and sending signals to the brain. TIM: Most taste buds can only detect one type of taste. Receptors for different tastes are distributed all over the mouth. All tastes we know of are a combination of these five: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. Tim's tongue is shown. Images show foods representing the five types of taste: a salt shaker for salty, a bag of sugar for sweet, a lemon for sour, coffee for bitter, and cheese for umami. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh, well umami is usually described as sort of a meaty or savory flavor. If you've ever had Chinese food with MSG, or monosodium glutamate, in it, you probably know what umami tastes like. Other factors contribute to how a food tastes. Smell is the most important. Try holding your nose and tasting something, and you'll find it tastes really bland! How food feels in your mouth and even how it looks also play key roles in how food tastes! Three images show a nose smelling a scent, Tim chewing, and six different flavors and colors of ice cream piled high in a cone. TIM: Although we have taste buds on our tongues only, babies have taste buds all over their mouths, which makes their sense of taste more sensitive. Because of this, they don't like adult food, which is too strong for them. An animation shows a plate of food in front of a baby. Then the baby cries. TIM: They prefer baby food, which is really bland and almost tasteless. The baby smiles when baby food is in front of him. TIM: As they get older, a person's sense of taste gets less sensitive and they can appreciate adult food. Your sense of taste not only helps you enjoy foods, it can also warn you when you're eating something you probably shouldn't be. An image shows a bottle of bleach, a light bulb, a spider, a work boot, and a bar of soap. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, it's true that people have different taste preferences. Like some people love tomatoes, while others hate them. An image shows a boy and girl at a table with a plate of tomatoes in front of each of them. The girl smiles and holds the tomato while the boy holds his hand out to push it away. TIM: Scientists don't know exactly why humans have developed such wildly different taste preferences. It's an interesting question. So there you go. Your sense of taste: arguably the best gift evolution has given you. MOBY: Beep. Moby catches Tim eating baby food. TIM: Hey, get out! Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Health Transcripts